Coffee Forums

Jolly Bean Roastery hand roasts small batches of ethically sourced speciality coffee beans (the tasty ones!) and aims to showcase the individual qualities of each bean, roasting to order and delivering fresh to your door.

They love all things coffee, especially roasting, brewing and drinking it, and hopefully they can share it with you.

Click the banner to visit their site and use the ode shown for a Coffee Forums UK member discount!

On Sunday 15th May 2016 I will be cycling the Medio Fondo route in the Chiltern 100 Sportive in support of Prostate Cancer UK.

Along with my Bombay Bicycle Club team mates I will be tackling 76 miles (122km) of hills – with 1,897m of climbing (thats a lot!) - starting and finishing at Bovingdon Airfield, Hertfordshire.

I like to set myself a tough goal each year. Last year was the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 (with less climbing over a longer route) and I finished in just over 6 hours.

This ride however will be a real test, but what will spur me on is that Prostate Cancer UK is researching ways to help more men survive prostate cancer and enjoy a better quality of life. Over 10000 men die of prostate cancer each year. That's more than 1 per hour!

Money spent on research has already contributed to the following achievements:

Developed a new treatment for early prostate cancer

Set up a prostate cancer research centre to nurture talented researchers

Revealed that African Caribbean men are more likely to develop prostate cancer

It's not long now until we bring Cup North back to the northern heights of Manchester. This time we're in a new home at Victoria Warehouse and we're returning with an action packed programme of buzzing activities.

Saturday:UK Cup Tasters Championships – All Day
Watch 24 cupping masters go head to head as they break the coffee triangulation challenge and beat the clock.

Coffee Throwing Championships - Saturday Evening

Try your luck at throwing a 1kg bag of roasted coffee as far as you can for the chance to be crowned the Cup North Coffee Throwing Champion of 2015!
Sunday:Tamper Tantrum in association with Cimbali – All Day
Tamper Tantrum returns to Cup North this November with 6 inspiring speakers. Get the low down on each one of them here.
Both Days:Cup North Cinema in association with Small Batch Coffee Roasters – Timings TBC
We have a selection of coffee related films lined up for the event. See our full review of Caffeinated here. Between longer films there will be the opportunity to brush up on your skills with coffee tutorial videos and entertaining snippets from sponsors.
Coffee School with ContiConti have invited coffee pals Dhan Tamang and Charlotte Malaval to share skills in scheduled classes at our pop-up coffee school. Arrive early to book a place and avoid disappointment.
Guest Cupping Lab – All Day
The opportunity to sample and taste coffee from roasters and importers who aren’t exhibiting at Cup North. Confirmed so far are Square Mile Coffee Roasters, Nordic Approach, Coffee Bird and Lot Sixty One. Each slot will last approximately 45 minutes.

He walked us through the picking, processing, drying and sorting process. All his coffee gets sent to a local mill for depulping. Some is also roasted locally which his family uses in their restaurant nearby.

We learned about the pests that attack the coffee trees (beetle infected cherry below), saw leaf rust (a widespread problem in central and south america), and learned about the cultivation and pruning processes too.

This contest went to the wire and was about to go to Nico when (infamous*) judge Jeremy Challender (of Prufrock and the *etchgate scandal in 2013...) noticed the cups were of slightly different sizes...

Repour!

Up to this point the baristas could pour two cups and put their best one forward. That all changed for the final throw of the dice.

Nico and Dhan went head to head - steam at the same time and throw down your best heart, tulip or rosetta and be judged the winner of the 2015 London Latte Art Smackdown.

During the London Coffee Festival (back in Feb 2015) we briefly discussed the idea of a forum day in Brighton and Hove, to visit the Small Batch Coffee Roastery and a number of coffeeshops in the surrounding area.

After a few emails to set provisional dates the Small Batch Coffee team put together a great itinerary which started us off at the roastery in Hove, and the day finally rolled around.

Attachment 16612
Jay roasting on the Diedrich at Small Batch Coffee Roasters in Hove.
Your coffee is roasted on a 12kg Diedrich Roaster, skilfully operated by Jay and Al.

We cupped 10 roasts - 4 Small Batch Coffee current crop offerings and 6 pre-season Rwandan sample roasts (2 of which are on the water - headed for the roastery later this year).

During the morning the roaster was always on and the members got to see the process first hand - listening for first crack, viewing the Cropster software tracking the time and temperature and plotting the roast progress against the recipes - and got to taste the results of yesterdays roasts on the cupping table.

Following lunch (which was superb! - thanks Al and Dan) we all bought some coffee and then headed into Brighton.

First stop was Coffee @ 33 - hosted by Coffee Forums UK
They were roasting themselves and the aroma filled their shop and the street outside - enticing more people in.
This was the first 'espresso' stop.
Delightful coffee and yummy pastries too.

After a few minutes we headed to Taylor Street Baristas for more piccolo's flat whites and espresso, then headed on to Bond Street Coffee to try their espresso, brewed coffee and iced lattes, before ending up at Small Batch Coffee on Jubilee Street where we drank pints of iced flat whites and ate cake.

The Small Batch Coffee coffeeshop fitout on Jubilee Street was brilliant - with a very long bar, a great selection of drinks and plenty of opportunity to people watch too. The coffee was showcased really well, and all coffeeshops we visited today were places I would happily recommend (and visit again).

Coffee Photos

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